Any Way You Cut It, Sushi Grows in Popularity With Diners in S.D.

Sushi grows less beguiling but more satisfying as one’s acquaintance with it improves.

Part of sushi’s appeal, when one first meets it, is its strangeness. American cooking admits cold rice only when it has been mixed with custard and transformed into a pudding, but sushi demands cold rice, made sweet and pungent with rice vinegar, as its base ingredient. And then there is the little candy stripe of wasabi, a hot horseradish paste, that runs down the back of the rice bundle, and the strip of dried seaweed that often secures the topping to the rice.

Strangest of all, of course, are the toppings themselves, most of them anathema to the traditional American palate--the list most notably includes raw fish of almost every variety, but goes on to embrace such challenging items as broiled eel in sweet sauce and raw quail egg garnished with salty salmon roe.

Yet many contemporary Americans, who as children would have turned pale at the sight of such things, now experience great pleasure in eating them. After a few trips to a sushi bar the food loses its mystery, and in fact, one gains a critical eye and palate that judges the chef’s skill at shaping and seasoning the tidbits.

The lessening of mystery, though, is replaced by a growing appreciation for the flavor and savor that good sushi can offer. Perhaps it is the freshness inherent in sushi that makes it so attractive, because sushi is too simple a food to allow the inclusion of frozen, stale or otherwise dubious ingredients.

In any case, sushi bars have become ubiquitous in West Coast metropolitan areas, and it seems that a new one opens almost weekly in San Diego County. Two more recently have joined the local list, Sushi on the Rock in La Jolla, and Shigeyo in El Cajon.

Sushi on the Rock makes a fine example of the general acceptance that sushi has come to enjoy. Whereas early establishments treated the preparation and presentation of this food with a great deal of traditional Japanese pomp and ceremony, and were careful to drape both their dining areas and their attendants in traditional garb, Sushi on the Rock treats sushi rather like a pop food.

The restaurant certainly has removed sushi from its ethnic milieu. The brightly lit, high-tech decor follows, for better or worse, the ascetic look favored by many contemporary restaurant designers.

The sushi chefs, who wield their sharp knives and bamboo rolling mats in presumably the manner established by their ancestors, wear jeans and sweat shirts emblazoned with the restaurant’s name rather than the tunics and short, starched caps commonly associated with their trade.

The restaurant’s name itself has several pop connotations. Sushi on the Rock refers partly to the rocky cliffs that rise above the nearby La Jolla Cove and also to sake-on-the-rocks, a drink this place will serve when it obtains a liquor license. The name refers most of all to rock music, however, which provides this place with much of its mood. Rock blares constantly from the sound system, which seems to please the predominantly young clientele. If the concept of serving sushi in a free-wheeling, pub-style environment catches on, sushi and sake could spread into the country’s hinterland as successfully as have burritos and margaritas.

The menu is so simple as to barely require explanation. Aside from a few house specialties (one, a stuffed, rolled sushi, is called the “rock ‘n’ roll”), the sushi list offers such typical items as raw blue tuna, mackerel, yellow tail, abalone, salmon and so forth. The question in each case is: Was the fish impeccably fresh and sweet-tasting? Each variety sampled successfully met this test. The sushi chef also seemed to be expert at cutting the fish, and at shaping and seasoning the little packages.

Sushi restaurants seem to pride themselves on their manner of assembling certain popular specialties, among them the highly Americanized “California roll.” There seemed something wrong with the flavor of this item at Sushi on the Rock, and there was: In addition to the typical filling of cucumber, avocado, crab and salmon, it contained a little mayonnaise, which was as out of sync with the other flavors as chocolate sauce would be with a rare steak. Japanese cuisine wholeheartedly has adopted American bottled sauces, salad dressings and the like, with mixed results.

Among other choices are broiled eel brushed with sweet sauce (quite nice, if one likes eel); octopus; giant clam cut in thin slices; sea urchin, and shrimp, both cooked and raw. One preparation that people who recoil from fish sushi generally like is tamago, a chunk of flat, sweetened omelet perched atop a bundle of rice; Sushi on the Rock serves a quite presentable version. The restaurant also offers a few simple, traditional hot dishes, such as miso soup, chicken yakitori, barbecued clams and shrimp and vegetable tempura. Most sushi cost from $2.20 to $3.50 per two-piece order, and the hot dishes cost $3.95.

El Cajon’s Shigeyo must be one of the smallest restaurants in the county. The sushi counter seats six and the booths another 20, and when the place reaches capacity, it is jammed .

This tiny restaurant has its attractions, however. Among them is the cheerful, home-style mood (and it is impossible for guests to feel other than at home when they face the kitchen stove from a distance of just a few feet) created by proprietor and sushi chef Taka Shigeyo.

The sushi are well prepared, and another bonus is the selection of good, and very inexpensive, hot entrees cooked by Shigeyo’s wife. Take note, however, that the place does not have a liquor license, and is informal and unpretentious in the extreme.

The glass case in which the various sushi toppings are displayed perhaps offers fewer items than would be found at larger restaurants, but the selection is satisfactory nonetheless, and everything sampled tasted perfectly fresh. The chef, who has been at it for years, did a fine job. Blue tuna, cooked shrimp, California roll, eel, tamago and halibut were sampled, and all came off well.

A house specialty, oysters broiled under a topping of mayonnaise, A-1 Sauce, cayenne pepper and garlic, seemed outlandish and had a disagreeable flavor, but raw, chilled oysters, dressed with a piquant sauce that might have been a Japanese interpretation of Mexican salsa, were rather pleasing.

This restaurant does very well with traditional Japanese entrees. Sukiyaki was fully flavored and generously served, and even came sided by a raw egg, which the diner beat with his chopsticks and then used as a dip for each steaming morsel of food. Sesame chicken had a mild, savory flavor; the serving contained plenty of meat, and was garnished with a salad, several pickled side dishes (including sweet, delicious bits of octopus) and rice. Among other entrees are pork or chicken teriyaki, tonkatsu (breaded and fried chunks of pork), shrimp with hot sauce and broiled salmon steak. Most cost $4.50, with seafood dishes priced at $6.95. Most sushi cost $1.95.

SUSHI ON THE ROCK.

1277 Prospect St., La Jolla.

456-1138.

SHIGEYO.

369 El Cajon Blvd., El Cajon.

440-7476.

Open 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.